Offroad-Express

Misses has sold her car, and decided she would like a small 4wd.
She has found a 1999 Vitara she likes, has 170km on it, with a H25A motor (I think).

Any opinions on these motors? Reliable? Thirsty? Anything to look for vehicle wise (known rust areas etc?)


Cheers,
Dave

Hi Dave,

What price are they looking for for it? I've got the older model, with the H20A V6 motor and am very happy with every aspect of it. I've heard of noisy cam chains, but mine seems fine, I'm at about 180k now. I assume the one you are looking at has not been used off-road? Best advice is to get on your back underneath it and check for any leaks/rust. The only place I've seen common rust on these is around the rear door. Mine does about 10k/L for just about any driving.

Cheers
Hein

Thanks. Been offered it for $5500, just need to get there to check it over.


Cheers

PM lneil, he knows Suzukis inside out. Good guy.

Thirsty for a small truck and I've owned 2 suzuki's and both have had major oil seals let go. Front crank seal on a G15 and a rear crank on an H25a. They are a cheap vehicle and the build reflects it but in terms of value for money, they seem good.

Hi Dave,

That's a fair price for a Grand Vitara V6. The cam chains are a little small in the guage I think, as it is not uncommon for them to get rattly, then sloppy, then fail; resulting in lots of expensive unpleasant crunchy, bangy noises; followed immediately by silence and then by numerous, loud and profane exclamations.

The answer is to replace the cam-chains, tensioners and idlers when and if they get too rattly. If they're already noisy you need to allow anything from $800 to $1,700 to do a thorough job, depending on whether you can do a lot of work yourself and whether you can still get aftermarket kits for them (Te Puke partsworld was sourcing them a while ago). Then keep well serviced with high quality lubricants.

Aside from that they're a good motor. Nice and smooth, light and torquey enough for a light truck like the GV. Some people say they're thirsty, but compare to any other V6-powered 4WD and you should be happy with it. I get exactly 30mpg from NSN to Chch in a standard 2.5 V6 auto, cruising at 100-110 km/h. (Round town in stop-start use, like any V6 auto they don't use too much more fuel than an Apollo rocket launch.)

If you're lucky you'll get a manual, as the front IFS diff is steel, as opposed to the weak-link alloy diff and housing on the 2.0L and V6 auto.

Vacuum 4WD engagement in the front diff, so select-on-the-fly in high box and no hubs to worry about on the Grand Vitaras either.

Keep us posted if you get it.

Thanks for the info, missed out on it though, so considering a '98 2.0 version, think it had 120km for $8000.
Of course they always seem to be on the wrong island, so can't test drive

The 2.0Ls are a good truck, but if it was me I would be tempted to wait for a good V6 manual, just because of the steel front diff. They're also often quite cheap as people in general are now paranoid about the fuel price of running a V6.

If she won't be doing anything too hard off-road though, the alloy front end may not be a problem.

Keep looking locally 'cos there are a lot of Gen1 and Gen2 Grand Vitaras in Marlborough and Nelson. I'll sing out if anything good comes up at work over here. Is your preference auto or manual?

Cheers
Leigh

Thanks, that would be great. Not too fussed whether auto or manual.
Probably just used as a runabout and not likely to go off road other than down to the beach.
Are the 2.0 fairly economical to run?


Thanks for the info,
Dave

For a 4WD they're pretty economical, about 10-15% better than the 2.5 V6. The J20 motor's working pretty hard as it's hauling just about a ton and a half of truck around, but its a strong, reliable motor and the cam-chains don't seem to give the same problems as the V6.

I'll keep my eyes open.

This site will give you an idea of what mpg they get. Most of them are V6, remember 20mpg = ~12l/100km.

http://www.fuelly.com/car/suzuki/grand%20vitara

Ineil's right, they're good for a SUV V6 but crap compared to a mid size car of the same weight.

Watch the electrics in them too, window switches, high beam switches and door light switches.

DaveM wrote:Thanks for the info, missed out on it though, so considering a '98 2.0 version, think it had 120km for $8000.
Of course they always seem to be on the wrong island, so can't test drive

Honestly, stay away from the J20, theyre gutless as f@#k, and they burn alot of oil, also on top of the very front cam caps there is a steel slap guard they snap off and go down the front cover cause the cam chain to jump, bend valves and all kinds of other nasty stuff
I know i work on them every day